Sienna Miller has firmly shut down’misogynistic’ opponents of her 41-year-old pregnancy.
The actress announced in the summer that she was expecting her second child, her first with fiancé Oli Green, 26.
Sienna already has an 11-year-old daughter, Marlowe, with her ex, Tom Sturridge, who is now dating Alexa Chung.
The star’s pregnancy became public knowledge without her making an announcement, when photographs of her on a beach in a bikini with a bulging tummy appeared.
Sienna now laughs that she ‘nearly got away with it’ because the photos were shot at 5 p.m. on her final day of vacation when she went swimming.
Overcoming ‘absurd’ opposition for becoming a mother again in her forties, the American-British actress has since publicly displayed her big belly in a lovely pregnancy pictorial.
Posing up a storm for Vogue, donned a series of glamorous ensembles, including a plunging gold gown that displayed her naked tummy, as well as a netted silver dress as she cosied up to Oli, who she was first romantically linked to last February.
Speaking in an accompanying interview with the fashion magazine, Sienna was asked about the ‘discussion online’ about having a child at ‘an advanced age.’
‘I think that people are comfortable with a way of living that has existed for many years that is very misogynistic and patriarchal, me being the older woman in a partnership with a younger person or being pregnant over 40, that that’s irresponsible for the child… it’s such double standards and it’s so unquestioned in people’s minds.
‘It’s just a trite, easy target. But it’s absurd.’
Sienna added that she was ‘very fortunate’ to become pregnant because she ‘wasn’t necessarily trying.’
Sienna emphasised that it’s’so terrible’ how people condemn her for her decisions now that she’s 31 weeks pregnant and has also revealed that she’s carrying another baby girl.
Sienna also opened out about her age-gap relationship with Oli.
Asked about how welcoming his family had been of her, she replied: ‘I would imagine it would be complicated for anyone to get their head around, but there’s been nothing but love and joy.’
‘I don’t think you can legislate on matters of the heart,’ she continued when quizzed on her and Oli’s 15-year age difference. ‘I certainly have never been able to.’
When pressed on whether she worries about Oli ever wanting to date someone younger, she said it works both ways.
‘For Oli, it is real that I might want to be with someone older. Female friends of mine in their 40s, they’re meeting younger people who are seeing women as three-dimensional figures. I do want to credit that to some level of the feminist movement working.’
She added that, within her boyfriend’s friends, she notices ‘awareness of the dynamics that enter relationships between men and women now that we just didn’t have 20 or 25 years ago.’
Sienna is happy to have observed it, and she finds comfort in the fact that her girls have more autonomy now, and the word “no” is “in their repertoire.”
‘I feel like my whole adolescence was dodging bullets and advances in a really delicate way, to not offend somebody.’
Finally, Sienna believes herself to be ‘much more prepared’ for motherhood a second time around, at least psychologically speaking.
‘The reality was quite a shock. I was 29 when I got pregnant, I had her (Marlowe) at 30. I just hadn’t given it the thought… I guess you can’t prepare for it.’
‘In my mind, this is just gonna be the easiest, cosiest, sweetest, because I’ve completely forgotten the reality of having a newborn baby,’ she laughed.
Vogue’s Winter 2024 issue is available on newsstands nationwide on January 23.